Copenhagen, Denmark-based Uttrup Financial Advisors recently launched the Cresco Fund, a long/short European equity offering with a Nordic bias. The Guernsey-domiciled fund, which launched in mid-May with $45 million, has returned gains of 3.3% and 0.2%, and a decline of 0.7% in its first three months of trading.

“As the nordic region itself is fairly cyclical, we have a tilt toward cyclical stocks in a broad variety of industries such as shipping, industrial, mining, oil services and so forth,” said Jesper Uttrup, a partner and former portfolio manager of Copenhagen long/short equity shop Danske Capital.

The fund is currently invested in about 25 stocks with long holdings in dry bulk, solar energy and local property developers.

Uttrup said he believes that the Nodic equity market has more upside than the rest of Europe because “balance sheets of companies are less stretched and we’re moving into a period right now where companies are starting to increase leverage on their balance sheets.”

The fund, which is targeting 25% net returns per annum, charges fees of 2% for management and 20% for performance, with a minimum investment requirement of US$500,000.

From the current issue of

The testimony of former FBI Director James Comey came and went with more hype than harm to Donald Trump’s administration. The more important issue is whether Congress spent too much political capital to get comprehensive tax reform done by the end of 2017. The likelihood of significant policy changes is fleeting for the year. Some economists are even losing hope that tax reform will be completed by the midterm elections of 2018.